The picture above represents only a tiny amount of hand coffee mills that are here at Sweet Maria's along with small hand cranked coffee roasting devices from around the world. This weeks roasted coffee offerings also come from two different parts of the world and compliment each other perfectly. Keep in mind that if you are not a Ongoing Subscription - Bi-Weekly Roasted Coffee Pairing subscriber, you should place an order for these coffees sooner than later. They usually sell out with the quickness!

This coffee is a perfect example of what a creamy bodied coffee has to offer. It lays on your tongue like milk chocolate or melted ice cream. There is also lots of sweet honey and cocoa with a snappy apple acidity at in the finish. A City+ roast showcases this coffee perfectly and I would not recommend roasting this coffee any lighter.

A very gentle coffee with everything you would want from a Western Ethiopian coffee. There is a lot of kola nut in the fragrance and taste that peeks out immediately. Expect some floral notes, and sweet stone fruits, cacao nibs and caramel. The body registers in the middle and clears with citrus-like acidity.

In addition to these coffee offerings above, there are two different blends for your espresso machine. Although you can run any coffee through any espresso machine, these two blends are specifically intended for espresso. The roasting approach is a little different and was intended to pull the acidity level down a touch. Please don't misunderstand me, there is still nice acidity levels here. The difference is with brew time and grind particle size. Mellowing out the acidity in an intended espresso roast could show as a flat or baked with a pour over extraction. Think of it as the difference...

When I started this project of reaching out to roasters and asking them about why they roast and what their aspirations with roasting were, one of the first home roasters I had thought of was Carlos Aguayo because of his posts in the Sweet Maria's forums. For some time Tom and I have talked about designing a Sweet Maria's home roasting starter kit, and the flour sifter design that Carlos and some others have been discussion on the forum is one of the most inspirational set-ups that I've yet to come across as far as something to base it off of. I reached out to him to ask him about his how and why. -Chris Schooley

CS: What’s your name and what equipment have you used?
CA: I use my own homespun roaster built with a heavily-modified Poplite popcorn popper and a flour sifter. My modifications include splitting the fan and heat power so I can adjust the airflow (and thus, the air temperature) manually, and putting a thermocouple in the air flow to measure that temperature accurately. I don't know that I am the first to use a flour sifter for this, but it works really well in this configuration. See the original thread for details: http://www.sweetmariascoffee.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5331

CS: What do you most love about roasting?
CA: I love that I can control the roasting process to get coffee that meets my tastes and preferences. I also really enjoyed the tinkering and experimenting that it took to get my roasting setup working well, and look forward to another design iteration when time permits.

CS: How did you get into roasting?
CA: I have moved to a new state several times in the last decade, and have struggled to find a consistently good source of coffee that I love every time. I got spoiled by fresh Peet's in the San Francisco Bay Area, and found that even if a place roasted it's own coffee, it often did not measure up. So when I found myself with a bit of time to tinker and a local source of green beans, I decided to give it a shot.

CS: What's your dream roaster set up?
CA: I'm more of a roast-your-own fanatic than a gearhead, so I don't know the various brand names and commercial options. But I would love to move closer to a true...

Sweet Maria's Moka Kadir Blend has sweet fruits and brooding chocolate notes highlight both applications when roasted toward the Full City range. It sticks close to the original idea of creating a Moka Java with fresh, clean ingredients.